


and you, my father, there on the sad height

by Elsin



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Consequences, Dark Magic, Gen, Magic, Post-Canon, Reference to Canonical Character Death (and Subsequent Canonical Undeath)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:28:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26804383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsin/pseuds/Elsin
Summary: Claudia brings Viren back to life.There are consequences for this.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	and you, my father, there on the sad height

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inquisitor_tohru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitor_tohru/gifts).



Dad opens his eyes again. _He opens his eyes again._ Of course Claudia knew what she was doing, knew that her plan _ought_ to work, but—well.

She’s never raised the dead before.

When she tells him that he didn’t survive the fall, his brows snap together, and he looks her over more closely, taking in her shaking hands and half-bleached hair.

“That was risky,” he tells her, and she shrugs helplessly.

“It was my only choice,” she says. He nods, and doesn’t tell her she should not have done it.

Claudia leans against the wall. Her hands are still shaking, unless she places them on something grounded; a deep chill has settled in her bones. She breathes, and tries not to think about the moment when she opened the doorway to the Other Side.

She doesn’t look at the other end of the cave, where she saw Dad’s little bug pal weave himself his cocoon. That was before she did her magic; it was only glowing a little then. Hardly enough to see by.

Now, its light nearly blinds her when she glances its way. She doesn’t know for sure what made it change like this, but it hardly takes a genius to connect the dots, to realize that it’s most likely her magic that did this to her.

Breathe in. Breathe out. She can’t undo what’s already been done; anyway she doesn’t want to, wouldn’t even if she could. That would mean Dad would be _dead_ again, after all. Whatever the consequences are, she’ll be able to deal with them.

She’ll _have_ to deal with them; it’s just her and Dad now, and his little bug pal.

“Claudia,” Dad says, bringing her attention back to him.

“Yes?”

“Were you listening just then?”

“…No,” Claudia admits. “Sorry. I was distracted.”

“Hm.” He doesn’t say anything after that; instead he comes over to her, strong and steady as he’s ever been—only the blood on his clothes hints at what was made of him—and sits in front of her. Then he reaches out and takes her hands in his own.

Claudia’s hands are icy cold and still shaking. Dad’s hands are steady and warm. The moment they touch, though, a fire spreads through her, from her hands up her arms and into her core, and her trembling stops.

“Thanks,” she says, and Dad gives her a very small smile.

“I rather think I should be thanking _you_ ,” he says, “but you’re welcome.”

He lets go of her hands, and she flexes them experimentally; they’re still a little stiff, she thinks, but they aren’t shaking anymore and the chill has lifted from her bones. She can work with _a little stiff._

“Where do we go from here?” she asks.

“Well,” says Dad, “we need to wait a little first. My… advisor… will be coming with us, after all.”

“And after that?”

“After that,” says Dad, mouth a grim slash, “we keep on with our quest. We must protect the human kingdoms, whatever the cost.” She nods, and he goes on, explaining his new plan to her.

Claudia listens to him, and watches him. She does not watch the other side of the cave, with its now-brilliant glow.

She does not listen to the ghostly murmurs coming from her father’s bag of coins, either.


End file.
